Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Dare to be simple - Restaurant: Watershed

Many menus today are so verbose, I sometimes wonder if I am being charged by the word. Perhaps I am. After all, someone has to pay for the PR firms and menu consultants to generate the right prose. Considering the trend, it was so refreshing to read the simple, almost sparse, menu at the restaurant I call "the happy place."

Watershed is its name (after a song by the Indigo Girls to which one of the owners owes her fame) and the nationally acclaimed Scott Peacock its chef. Walking into the restaurant, you would hardly suspect its pedigree. Housed inside a former gas station, the restaurant was awash in sunlight on a Saturday morning. A few pink tulips provided the only pop of color against the soothing pistachio walls. The lunch menu was fittingly simple, mostly sandwiches and salads. I picked the roasted pork and chicken salad sandwiches to share with mom. I can't describe the meal any better than what Watershed already says on its website. "The food is fresh, wholesome, and soul satisfying . . . Chef Scott Peacock's dishes will take you on a fresh culinary journey or bring you back to the comfort and warmth of your grandmother's kitchen." The only problem I had with this description was, well, my grandma was not Edna Lewis. Maybe a Chinese version of Edna, but not Edna. I had no mayo in my diet growing up! Don't you feel sorry for me now? :)

I never skip dessert at Watershed . . . or anywhere else, come to think of it. The point is when the menu says "very good chocolate cake," it does not kid around. Watershed's chocolate cake is among the best if not the best I've ever had. Except, this time, we didn't get the chocolate cake. J beat me to the punch and ordered "fresh baked cookies and milk." I am all for simplicity, but cookies and milk? A little too simple, maybe? Well, he was right and I was wrong. The cookies were the best, THE BEST, cookies ever!!!!! Just very very slightly crispy on the outside and impossibly warm and gooey on the inside. I ate mine and my dad's and wanted MORE! That's really saying a lot, because I am the nibbler and I really nibble when not faced with these cookies!